Project Overview
Background - about the UConn Outing Club
The Outing Club at UConn does "anything and everything outdoors!" They host weekly outdoor trips with activities that could be as simple as hiking and yoga to as adventurous as owl spotting and rock climbing. As one of the largest no-commitment clubs at the University, they have to make sure that for each trip everyone has a ride, the right equipment, and skill level to participate in their activities. Their current communication method is through email and instagram which is mostly used as a one-way communication for news and updates, making it inefficient way to keep up with inquiries from their 1,500 total members and 400 active members have about planned outdoor trips.
Background - How the Project started
A friend invited me to the UConn Outing Club meeting, and it was a great experience: the energy, openness, and I was excited to learn about the new trips that were coming up. Everything was awesome - except the part where we had to register for a trip and figure out rides to the destination. As you may have guessed, managing rides for about 2oo - 300 people (I know, I was surprised the lecture hall was actually packed too) can get chaotic.
Thus, my senior project will be an application (fully interactive figma prototype) called "UConn Go" that streamlines this process for the club so that members can spend less time worrying about rides and gear, and more time planning for trip activities.
Pivoting
I found out mid way through the semester that I had to change my project from redesigning an existing company's website to creating a project from scratch because a senior project is not supposed to be client work, but rather a project where one has complete autonomy and complete freedom to the design decisions.
Thus, I picked up a personal project where I had the rough idea to encourage people to visit the outdoors more. Eventually, this proved to be too broad for the scope and time limits during senior year, so I narrowed down my target audience further to members of the UConn Outing Club.
Original Idea: Outdoor Trip Planner
After week 7 which was when we got feed back on our project (which is what I present on the powerpoint slide to the left). I got feedback to distinguish it from other similar apps such as All Trails, to add the history of the land of these trails. For the next four weeks, I focused on finding the history behind some of the trails in Connecticut. Unfortunately, the information I found about the land was about who owned the land or the raw materials found in that area; nothing in particular about the people that lived on that land.
This presentation goes over my process for the Outdoor Trip Planner idea that focuses on Connecticut residents.
Pivot and Modifications
>> UConn Go
(Mobile application for the UConn Outing Club)
>> UConn Go
(Mobile application for the UConn Outing Club)
Narrowing Down Audience
Due to the fact that without the historical component this app would be very similar to All Trails, I wanted to do something that was different and more personalized. As a result, I looked for a more specific audience. One of my friends invited me to go to the outing club, and when I got there I saw that they would always have to organize rides for over 400 students and also lend gear. By the end of the meeting there would just be a long line of students waiting to be assigned a ride, and the board members trying to get more people to volunteer for drivers when there weren't enough for everyone.
About the UConn Outing Club
The Outing Club at UConn does "anything and everything outdoors!" They host weekly outdoor trips with activities that could be as simple as hiking and yoga to as adventurous as owl spotting and rock climbing. As one of the largest no-commitment clubs at the University, they have to make sure that for each trip everyone has a ride, the right equipment, and skill level to participate in their activities. Their current communication method is through email and instagram, which is not the most efficient way to keep up with the total of over 1,500 total and 400 active members. Thus, my senior project will be an application (fully interactive figma prototype) called "UConn Go" that streamlines this process for the club so that members can spend less time worrying about rides and gear, and more time planning for trip activities.
Flow Chart List
The hardest part about this project was organizing the information and also figuring out what the difference in interface would be for the admins and the regular members. So, I created a chart to make it easier to wrap my head around what needed to be on each page; view trips, add trips, manage rides, manage borrowed gear, and change settings/preferences.
Admin/Board Member
Trips
- Add/edit upcoming trips
- Accept or deny trip proposals
Rides
- Confirm everyone has a ride
- Send out an alerts on trips and ride changes/modifications
Other
- View who paid their dues
- Forms archive
- View gear inventory
Regular Club Member
Trips
- View Upcoming Trips
- View dates, equipment needed, etc
- Create a trip proposal
Rides
- Offer a ride
- Ask for a ride
- Cancel/Modify Rides
Profile
- View emergency contacts
- View user preferences
- Club contact information
- View borrowed gear
Project Prototype Draft Critique and Next Steps
Midway through out project timeframe, we shared each other's work and this is the feedback that I got: for positive feedback, people really like the simplicity of the application, the animations, and the illustration on the alert cards. Things that could be improved are mostly minor: There were a few errors here and there which I will be fixing, there are some things I could add such as a map view of where we are meeting for a particular trip, and to inject more of the UConn's Outing Club branding (or do a rebranding) into the overall design of the application.
After fixing these minor issues, I plan to meet up with several board members and regular club members during and after winter break to let them have a feel my first prototype and get feedback on it from both an admin and a regular member to listen to what kind of features they would like and why.
- This section is written as of Dec 15, 2023
Further development
After receiving critique, I set out to meet with a few board members to receive feedback of my prototype. Unfortunately, I was never able to meet with the board members, but I was able to meet with a few other members of the club. Their feedback was positive, although when I saw them navigating through my prototype, I saw a few flaws in my user flow where there were too many ways to do the same thing. So, for the rest of the time, I not only spent time implementing feedback from the December critique, I also optimized each flow to create a more simple and intuitive experience.
